Border guards, with the support of the US Coast Guard, seized 71 kilograms of cocaine and arrested two Dominicans in Isabela, a municipality on the northwest coast of Puerto Rico.
The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported this Monday in a statement that the operation, which took place on Saturday, allowed the seizure of a quantity of cocaine that would have reached $ 1.9 million on the black market.
“We continue to disrupt and detain smugglers who try to smuggle people and narcotics across our borders,” said Xavier Morales, chief patrol agent for the Ramey sector, on the northwest coast of Puerto Rico.
The statement said that on Saturday, a Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry maritime patrol aircraft located a suspected vessel, continued air surveillance and directed border guards to the exact place where the ship landed.
The officers found two men on board a craft boat about 20 feet long with a 40 hp engine.
The two people claimed to be citizens of the Dominican Republic.
Officers found 58 packs of cocaine and an extra 40 horsepower engine.
Homeland Security Investigators (HSI) took custody of the contraband and the aliens for investigation and prosecution.
Last week, Ramey Border Patrol agents and local police seized 284 pounds of cocaine from vehicles near Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.
The Ramey sector is one of twenty one sectors spread across the United States.
It covers the territorial islands of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, and is the only border surveillance sector outside the continental United States.